UPDATE 4:40PM: The reason all of this went down today has been dealt with. The Philadelphia Flyers have signed goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov to a nine year, $51 million deal, which averages out to $5.67 million a year on the cap. Wow.

In two of the biggest deals in recent NHL memory, Paul Holmgren and the Philadelphia Flyers have cleaned house, trading two of their biggest and longest contracts in order to make cap space for goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov.

Itt was confirmed Thursday afternoon that the Flyers had traded forward Jeff Carter to the Columbus Blue Jackets, in exchange for young winger Jakub Voracek, a first round pick and a third round pick. Carter had long been on the chopping block if for no other reason than because of the cap.

No more than an hour later, TSN's Gord Miller confirmed a second deal for the Flyers, sending their captain Mike Richard to Los Angeles in exchange for Forwards Wayne Simmonds and Brayden Schenn, a move rumored but coming as a bit of a surprise.

Somehow through all of this, the Flyers actually managed to get deeper up front, while making room for another blockbuster signing that would make Ilya Bryzgalov one of if not the richest goaltenders in NHL history.

Our Flyers team will have much more on this story as it develops, so stay tuned to The Checking Line!

Here is the problem. They sign a goalie to win now, but trade away their best forwards who are ready now. They stock their forward core for the future, but they now lose about 60 to 70 goals a season without Carter and Richards. It is a strange situation, not sure how this will work out.